Charles Washington built the frame house on Caroline Street around 1760. The Washington family occupied it until about 1780. In 1791, it passed to Larkin Smith. A year later, Colonel Gustav Wallace bought the property and leased it to John Frasier, who converted it into a tavern.
Frasier called it the Golden Eagle. The name Rising Sun came later — a 20th-century designation for a building that had carried another name in its working years. The ordinary served travelers into the 1820s under various owners. Fredericksburg sat at the fall line of the Rappahannock, the last navigable point before the river shallowed into the Piedmont.
By 1907, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities — now Preservation Virginia — purchased the building. The organization passed it to their Fredericksburg branch to operate. In 1933, the Society of the Cincinnati hosted a Sesquicentennial celebration on the property and presented Preservation Virginia with a bronze medal. In mid-2012, Preservation Virginia signed an agreement transferring ownership to Washington Heritage Museums by 2013.
Originally, the large front porch was not part of the structure. It was added during the tavern phase. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. Today, costumed guides walk visitors through the rooms. The building is open daily as a museum.
- ·1306 Caroline St. NRHP listed 1966. Operated by Washington Heritage Museums. Built c. 1760 by Charles Washington — George Washington's younger brother. George Washington visited Fredericksburg constantly: his mother Mary lived two blocks away on Charles Street, his sister Betty lived at Kenmore Plantation up the road. Local tradition holds this was the tavern where Virginia's founding generation drank, argued, and organized — Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones, and the Washington circle are all said to have been in these rooms. The ledger doesn't record every visit. The town does.
Memories
Editorial content compiled with AI assistance. Place details verified against public records.